Financing the venture is a key challenge faced by entrepreneurs who increasingly look for alternative options outside of classical venture capital. Further, startup founders face the key challenge of validating demand for their envisaged product or service with which crowdfunding and generative AI can both present useful instruments. This course has two objectives: (1) to equip SIMC students with the essential skills and knowledge to effectively plan and execute a crowdfunding campaign and refine it with AI-based tools and (2) to provide essential theoretical background on investor decision making in the crowd, optimal prompt design and the opportunities and risks of AI usage in this context.

After receiving theoretical insights into key success factors when engaging with the crowd as well as on AI essentials, students will work in teams to study existing crowdfunding campaigns in chosen industries after which they will apply this knowledge to a campaign of their own and pitch it to the class. Using their theoretical insights from the literature, the teams will develop fully executable campaign plans for investors in the crowd.

Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to:

• Understand key aspects of investor decision-making in the crowd
• Identify key success criteria of crowdfunding campaigns in a given sector and evaluate them
• Design and execute a campaign page including ideation of sensible participation incentives that account for the unique aspects of the online crowd
• Leverage AI-based tools for early customer validation and campaign planning
• Leverage AI-based tools to create impactful investor pitch videos and campaign content for their startup idea and for campaign refinement
• Understand how a crowdfunding campaign fits into startups’ overall financing and marketing communications strategy
• Understand the opportunities and drawbacks of generative AI in the context of venture finance

·       Students must attend at least 80% of all classes and events to successfully complete the course.

The course is practice-oriented and aims to deepen and extend students’ theoretical knowledge of entrepreneurial finance via crowdfunding while giving them first-hand experience in utilizing generative AI tools in new ways to drive their innovative ideas forward towards realization. The course involves:

• Self-study and theoretical input through lectures and group discourse
• Team-based project work
• Idea development, early customer validation and campaign planning and creation
• Peer feedback and collaborative learning

• 20% Crowdfunding Campaign Plan (group grade, peer evaluation, more information provided at Kick-Off)
• 30% Crowdfunding Pitch (group and individual grade component – equal parts)
• 30% Active Class Participation (individual grade)
• 10% Paper Summaries (individual grade)
• 10% Reflection Reel (individual grade)

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